High-Quality Teachers May Shun Schools With Large Minority Populations

In a Science Daily article “Teachers Choose Schools According to Student Race, According to Study,” C. Kirabo Jackson, author of “the first study to show that a school’s racial makeup may be a direct impact on the quality of its teachers,” reported that high-quality teachers avoid teaching in schools with large minority populations or with an inflow of minority students.

By reviewing data from the North Carolina Education Research Center, Dr. Jackson determined that in the Charlotte-Mecklenberg school district, “schools that had an increase in black enrollment suffered a decrease in their share of high-quality teachers, as measured by years of experience and certification test scores.” Notably, teachers who had been effective previously often saw their ability to improve test scores diminish with the inflow of black students. This change in quality typically happened “in the same year that the busing program ended.” Jackson found that teachers moved when they anticipated that they would have more black students. Even though black teachers were more inclined to remain in the school, if they did leave, they “tended to be the highest qualified black teachers.”